Yeast adenylate cyclase catalytic domain is carboxy terminal

Subcloning of DNA fragments from the gene coding for yeast adenylate cyclase has permitted, after complementation studies in S. cerevisiae cdc35 mutants as well as E. coli cya mutants, to identify the sequence coding for the catalytic domain of the protein. No homology is found between the yeast cyclase catalytic domain and the homologous domain found in E. coli adenylate cyclase. Analysis by Northern blotting of yeast polyA mRNA has shown the existence of multiple transcriptional products of the gene. A putative origin of a major transcript (3.5 kb) would allow synthesis of a ca. 100,000 dalton protein exhibiting cyclase activity in its carboxy terminal domain, and having 7 repeats of 17 amino acids at its amino terminal end. Several note-worthy features, including the possibility of transcriptional control by the general control of amino acids biosynthesis, are present at this putative origin. Data are presented suggesting that a much longer gene product might also be synthesized from the CDC35 gene. Neither the gene organization nor the amino acid sequence of the protein does display any homology with the adenylate cyclase gene and protein of Escherichia coli. This suggests a case of evolutionary convergence for the synthesis of cAMP in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.